The Fax Machine
by nebula2
Summary: A day at the office with no UnSubs to chase should be uneventful right? Not when a fax machine has other ideas.


**Disclaimer: Criminal Minds and its characters don't belong to me, just borrowing them for some mindless entertainment**

_AN: This is one of two ideas I had for the Silver Screen Challenge at Chit Chat on Author's Corner. It's a complete fluff piece meant only to entertain. My other idea, which I hope to post later tonight or tomorrow is a bit more substantial. This is set before season one of CM so there is no JJ, Garcia, or Greenaway. Nichols and Hudson are two OC's that I created that are introduced in Eternal Changes. Nichols is an agent that basically fills Garcia's role. Hope you enjoy._

_**Prompt:** chosen character - Derek Morgan/ movie title - "Necessary Roughness" / added character - Jason Gideon_

* * *

><p>Jason Gideon started back for his office, a fresh cup of coffee in hand. Things were quiet today, and that meant that he might actually get a chance to make headway on the mountain of paperwork that had piled up over the last few weeks. Hotch had taken Reid on a custodial with him and newly promoted SSA Fred Hudson had taken a couple days off to fly home and see his parents. That left only two members of his team in the office today. Looking around the bullpen he didn't see either one of them. Deciding not to worry about it, they weren't middle school students after all, he continued on to his office. Passing the conference room however, he caught a familiar voice.<p>

"Morgan, what are you doing?"

"Trying to actually get a fax of the reports from the crimes, so that I can work on this consult."

"You could have fooled me," Nichols said, the statement followed by some banging. "Stop it! Stop it! Just because machines don't have feelings doesn't mean you can rough them up like an opponent on a football field."

Cursing himself for speaking too soon, Gideon headed for the open door of the conference room that the team held meetings in. Standing in the doorway, he found both of his remaining agents by the fax machine. Nichols had wedged himself in between Morgan and the offending device.

"I didn't rough people up on the football field. I was a quarterback. I threw the ball so my team could actually score points."

"The way you're beating up the poor fax machine I think you should have been a linebacker to get rid of all that built up frustration."

"What is going on here?" Gideon asked, making his presence known to the other two FBI agents.

Both agents looked toward the doorway.

"Morgan is trying to put the fax machine out of commission. Somehow I don't think Strauss is going to buy a necessary roughness excuse for a reason that we need to replace a fax machine," Nichols replied.

"I wouldn't have to beat the thing up if it wouldn't keep eating the papers."

"I received some faxes this morning," Gideon said. "It was working fine then."

"Are you trying to imply that I don't know how to use a fax machine?"

Gideon looked at the dark-skinned agent and shrugged, even as he walked into the room. "Is someone still on the line?" Gideon asked, indicating the cell phone that Morgan was holding.

"Yeah, the detective who is trying to fax me the reports."

"Give me the phone," Gideon said holding out his hand. Morgan handed over the phone. Placing his coffee cup down on the table next to the fax machine, Gideon put the phone up to his ear. "Hello. Yeah, this is Agent Gideon with the BAU. We're having some technical difficulties here, would you mind sending that fax, one more time?" he asked, as he made sure any paper jams were clear and the machine was ready to receive an incoming fax.

Moments later, the machine came to life, and five pieces of paper smoothly printed out. The phone still to his ear, Gideon addressed the detective.

"It came through that time. Thank-you for your patience," he told the detective before ending the call.

Retrieving the printouts, Gideon handed both them and the phone over to Morgan. "There you go. If you don't know how to work the machines feel free to ask," Gideon told him, before picking up his coffee cup and walking toward the door. At the doorway he turned and looked back at his two agents. "Oh, and Morgan, it may be best if you stay out of Nichols' office. If he's this defensive of a fax machine, I'm afraid he might pull out his gun to protect his computers."

With that said, Jason Gideon walked out of the conference room and headed for the sanctuary of his waiting office.


End file.
